Scholastic, 2012
grades 7-up
Mexican American
Eighteen-year-old Kate Romero and her
16-year-old sister, Mary, have helped their father take care of their mother
for years, after a car accident left her in a permanent vegetative state. The
stress has taken its toll on their father, a Pentecostal minister with an
increasingly restive flock. When Reverend Romero dies suddenly of a heart
attack, Kate and Mary must take care of their mother themselves. Their
financial resources are dwindling rapidly, and the people around them to
provide support—Kate’s boyfriend, Simon; their Aunt Julia; and Andres Soto, the
ambitious young preacher who intended to replace Rev. Romero even before his
death—have their own agendas. When the intellectual Kate spurns Simon’s
marriage proposal because she wants to attend Stanford University on
scholarship and the artistic Mary falls in love with an unlikely gang member,
the girls weigh, in their separate ways, their duty to family against their
right to pursue their dreams.
Stork (Marcelo in the Real World and The
Last Summer of the Death Warriors) has proven himself a master of
characterization and character development, and Irises—his first novel narrated from a female point of view (though
in third person)—is no exception. There is a subtle creepiness in otherwise
good people that will draw readers in and won’t let them go. Basically, no one
is who he or she seems on the surface. A concerned and overwhelmed father turns
out to exert a level of psychological control, even beyond the grave, that
borders on abuse. An ambitious preacher who challenges doctrine and urges
congregants to be honest with themselves struggles with inappropriate sexual
urges. (Stork’s restraint for this plot thread is masterful.) A resentful,
grudging aunt makes a far larger sacrifice for family than she is willing to
reveal. Readers will sense the competition and jealousies beneath Kate and
Mary’s apparent closeness. While Stork doesn’t feel compelled to give his
protagonists a happy ending, insight into who they are serves as the first step
to genuine growth and maturity. Recommended.
—Lyn Miller-Lachmann
(published 4/7/13)
(published 4/7/13)
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